


Tarantula Hair

by Artemis_Crimson



Category: The Illuminae Files - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Genre: (Rose helped me with my spelling and grammer thanks Rose), Artificial Intelligence, Cybernetics, F/M, Other, Robot/Human Relationships, mostly Kady the oc is just for plot and aidan is in the background kinda, vague fuck canon post obsidio era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26472769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Crimson/pseuds/Artemis_Crimson
Summary: In which Kady commits to some mutual hardware upgrades
Relationships: AIDAN/Kady Grant
Kudos: 7





	Tarantula Hair

She’d honestly been thinking of getting wetware since before, all of this. Before the fucking fight with Ezra. One of those half real thoughts that grows in seriousness by how often you come back to it. How much you realize you’ve researched. Kady traces a looping pattern behind her ear with a finger where the net of electromagnets would begin, round from where standard comm implants go, down to the cradle of her upper vertebrae where tapless receivers would rest. The person who helped her acquire the funds for a top of the line back alley insertion wasn’t really a consideration. He chirped up from the wireless earbud linked the the oversized tablet she hauled around with directions to the tattoo shop which worked as a front. The universe’s most advanced gps.

Kady had tried to explain the difference between wetware and prosthetics to the rest of the group. Both were cybernetics technically. She’d been sat down for a talk about how serious a choice removing a limb was- if you had all your originally intended human parts intact and wanted to take all the advantages mechanical ones could give then yes, you’d need to cut things off. But wetware went underneath what was already in, it was what let false limbs move better than flesh and blood. You could always build up on someone. Which was what she wanted. Was doing. Whatever.

Kady slide down the narrow alley and opened the side entrance, a mood breaking cheerful bell chime announcing her arrival.

“With you in a minute!”

Kady called out an acknowledgement on autopilot, too busy looking at the art on the walls. Screens flickered through full colour photographs and short looping videos of modifications. Here’s a tattoo, blackout and geometric. Now one with delicate lines, thin as human hairs. Here’s a person with an led piercing, cycles through its colours twice before the next image takes the vid’s place. She’s busy staring morbidly fascinated at a series of scarification mods when her contact wraps up in the back.  
“K.D.G? You sent the door code by text right?”  
They’re short and appear unmodified at first, then they step towards her and the unnatural gate makes her look down. Shiny silver legs pad silently across the floor and she just manages to focus again to shake their offered hand.  
“Yeah, it’s nice to meet you in person.”

“The pleasure is all mine, we don’t often get people like you who are so open to, artistic whim”

They wave their hand and set off down to the back, clearly expecting to be followed. They both confirm the details, not chatting just, shop talk. They pass the rooms meant for more legal modifications to a dead end.  
Her host opens a door she couldn’t see was there, ushering her in. The short passage was illuminated only by black-light, under it glowing lines like veins light up under their skin.  
“I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Kady doesn’t realize she’s spoken out loud until they answer back, taking her jacket, ushering her on to a cushioned table in a well lit room. “They’re subtle and lovely aren’t they? They’re not hard to do either, I have the ink in every colour of the rainbow if you want something like it.”  
Kady finishes stripping, shrugs one shoulder noncommittal. They finish typing something on the bed, offers a mask, hesitate and clip it to their own face instead, “You want to be out for this? Localized numbing means you won’t have to feel a thing but it’s boring and uncomfortable.”  
“Yeah sure” she weighs her options, helped by a final quiet chirp from her ear “can you leave my headset out in the open though?”  
She’s about to justify herself when they nod, scooping it up and resting it in earshot in an empty tray.  
“Won’t need it after we get these bad boys in, I just need to you lie down and grab the mask there, deep breath in and...”

The world slips away almost the instant she attaches the tube to her face.

  
She drifts.

  
Dreams.

Drowns.

Static in her head. In her skin.

Embers of fire in her spine.  
The static crystallizes into a voice.  
  
She’s sitting up, in a chair, plastic gown tucked around her. Eyes cracked carefully open to blessedly dim light.  
“Take it easy, you have all night.”

The voice is barely familiar, its owner is pretty much a stranger after all. She’s not even meant to ask their name. There’s a bottle of some sports drink cracked open, and one sealed by her hand. She figures if they were gonna drug her- well technically they’d already drugged her. Her fingers are still numb besides, the twist cap lives another day. Slowly awareness eases back in, letting her take catalogue of the changes.  
“I was expecting slightly more stitches.”

They shrug and toss an empty canister in a new bin, “You sprang for nanites remember? No scars or wait time here. It’ll feel raw for a day or two but you’re fine. It went more smoothly than I was expecting, you’re my last appointment so no need to rush.”  
They drop her comm unit in her lap and go back to tidying the mess surgery leaves. Ducking back out the door, into the hall which makes them glow with neat silent steps.  
Its line is dead, she fiddles with her new magnet, sensing the casing and waiting for the calibrations to finish.

“Kady?”  
Her implants have finally hummed to life. Voice against her skull. Glittering sparks from the rods in her tear ducts projecting a screen, schematics flickering, text scrolling frantically. She leans back with a smile, starts working the second bottle open.  
“Hey Überbrain, how’s everything look from your end?”

**Author's Note:**

> One day I'll write something longer/nicer for them, a different day I'll finish that role swap au, but for now have this


End file.
